Montreal, or Montréal is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec and the second-largest city in Canada. Montreal was the largest city in Canada up until the 1970s, when it was surpassed in size by Toronto. Originally called Ville-Marie ('City of Mary'), some historians think the city takes its present name from Mount Royal, the three-headed hill at the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the city is located, or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French, (Mont Royal / in present French).
The official language of Montreal is French as defined by the city's charter. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, 1,620,693 people resided in the city of Montreal proper. The population of the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (also known as Greater Montreal) was 3,635,571 at the same 2006 census. In the census metropolitan area, French is the language most spoken at home by 70.5% of the population (as of 2006 census). In 2007, Forbes Magazine ranked Montreal as the 10th cleanest city in the world. In the June 19th, 2008 edition of London based Monocle Magazine, Montreal was ranked 16th in a list of the world's 25 most liveable cities. Contributing factors included a strong arts community, booming aerospace industry and a vast network of free wireless internet. |
